


Change of Perspective

by Brumeier



Category: The Sentinel (TV)
Genre: Crime Fighting, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Guides, Kissing, M/M, Role Reversal, Sentinel Senses, Spirit Animals, Spirit World
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-13 07:28:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29024970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brumeier/pseuds/Brumeier
Summary: Incacha tasked the Sentinel and Guide of the Great City with one more journey to complete their partnership. Jim and Blair couldn't suspect what that would entail.
Relationships: Jim Ellison/Blair Sandburg
Comments: 17
Kudos: 54
Collections: What If? AU Challenge





	Change of Perspective

**Author's Note:**

> **Written for:**
> 
> whatif_au: Reversals  
> ficlet_zone: Charley Pride song titles – Hope You’re Feelin’ Me (Like I’m Feelin’ You)

_“Wow,” Blair whistled. “Is it always like this?”_

_“Always,” Jim confirmed._

_Blair didn’t know how they’d gotten pulled into the spirit plane, which he’d imagined a million times but never personally experienced, but he tried to take everything in. The blue tint was pretty freaky, but otherwise it looked like the jungles of Peru. The sounds, the smells, the thick air…Blair was familiar with all of it._

_“Why are we here?”_

_Jim looked puzzled. “I don’t know.”_

_“No internal conflicts you haven’t told me about, big guy?_

_“Not that I’m aware of.”_

_Blair was all set to launch into a lecture on subconscious motivators, but he lost the words when he caught sight of the wolf._

_“Is that –”_

_“Yeah,” Jim said. “Yeah, it is.”_

_Blair had never seen his spirit animal, but Jim had. Just once. Blair had never seen a wolf up close and personal, and maybe he was a little biased, but it was a magnificent creature. It stood farther up the trail he and Jim had been following, eyes full of intelligence._

_A moment later it was joined by the black panther, sleek and powerful._

_“Wow.”_

_He hated sounding so inarticulate – Blair was almost never at a loss for words – but it was the best he could manage under the circumstances. The spiritual side of being a Sentinel had, until now, solely belonged to Jim. He was the one who traveled to the spirit plane, interacted with the spirit animals, had conversations with…_

_“Incacha!”_

_“It is good to see you, Sentinel and Guide of the Great City.”_

_“It’s good to see you too, old friend,” Jim said solemnly. “Did you call us here?”_

_“You must complete your journey.”_

_Jim exchanged a look with Blair, who could only shrug. “What journey?”_

_“To reach the fullness of your partnership, you must know each other as Sentinel and Guide, Guide and Sentinel. Only then can you reach your fullest potential.”_

_Blair wondered what Incacha meant by that. He’d long suspected there was some bonding ritual a Sentinel and Guide pair had to go through to cement their relationship, but what did that entail? Ritualistic words? Sharing a symbolic meal?_

_It obviously wasn’t sex, because they’d been having that on the regular ever since Jim had brought Blair back from the dead. It was interesting that it wasn’t part of the bonding thing. Pretty good perk, though. Best sex of Blair’s life, if he was being honest._

_“How do we do that?” Jim asked._

_Incacha just grinned enigmatically. “Be well, my friends.”_

_And then he vanished, like he’d never been there._

*o*o*o*

Blair woke up in the morning certain he was dying.

His whole body felt like it was on fire, and his head was filled with so much noise he couldn’t hear a thing Jim was saying to him when he squinted up at him. The sun streaming through the skylight was blinding.

What the hell was happening? Had he been poisoned somehow? Did he have a brain tumor? It was so hard to think when everything was so loud, so painful, so…

Jim cupped Blair’s head and turned it so Blair was looking right at him, then took one hand away to make a twisting motion.

“What?”

Jim tapped his own ear and made the twisting motion again, like he was turning a knob or…or…a dial.

Understanding washed over Blair and he nodded. “I get it. Give me a minute here.”

He closed his eyes and tried to do what he’d instructed Jim when they’d first started to get Jim’s senses under control. Blair had to make his own set of mental dials for each of his senses and bring them down to normal levels, because apparently what Incacha had meant about finishing their journey was they’d be swapping their roles.

Blair was the Sentinel now. Holy crap.

Dials. Right. _Focus._ The first thing that came to his mind were the tuning dials in the old Chevy Nova Naomi used to drive. Blair had loved that car, rusted and battered as it had been. He remembered being small enough to lay down in the back window, soaking up the sunshine on a long drive like a cat.

One dial for touch, and it must’ve been the warmth of the sun through the window that was making him feel like he could burst into flame. Funny how it had seemed a lot easier when he was making Jim do all the hard work.

It seemed to take forever for Blair to solidify his vision of the dial and get it turned down enough that he felt mostly normal. The next one went quicker, and it wasn’t long before all the noise in his head faded out.

“Still with me, Chief?” Jim asked. 

He sounded deceptively calm, but Blair could hear the anxiety riding along underneath it. He automatically reached for his Guide gift to help soothe his Sentinel, but it wasn’t there.

“I guess we know what the last part of the journey is now,” Blair said weakly. 

“You had me worried there for a minute.”

Jim pulled Blair so he was sitting up and hugged him. Blair adjusted the hearing dial, bumping it just enough that he could hear Jim’s heartbeat.

“Is this how you live every day?” he couldn’t help asking.

“Not as easy as I make it look, is it?” Jim pulled back, and the humor in eyes was sincere. “You’ll need to maintain those dials all day, kind of keep them in the back of your mind while you’re doing everything else.”

“Mental multitasking?”

“Exactly. Could be a problem for someone with the attention span of a squirrel.”

Blair shoved Jim in the shoulder. “Very funny.”

“I’ll call Simon. Neither one of us should be working today.”

Blair nodded his agreement. He didn’t want to put anyone in danger because he had no idea how to be a Sentinel.

Jim got off the bed and pulled on a t-shirt. He paused at the head of the stairs, and Blair could see the tension in his shoulders.

“Jim?”

Without turning around, Jim said, “I forgot what it was like. Being normal.”

Before Blair could protest the misuse of that label, Jim was down the stairs.

*o*o*o*

“How come I haven’t zoned yet?” Blair asked.

He’d been spending hours experimenting with his newfound senses, trying to see how far he could push them, how far he could go. The dials kept slipping, needing him to focus on adjusting them back to baseline normal before he could try something more advanced, like piggybacking sight and sound.

“You’re the genius,” Jim said. “You tell me.”

He was lounging on the couch, flipping through a magazine like he didn’t have a care in the world. Blair didn’t need superpowers to see the opposite was true. Jim had fought his destiny for years, but the truth was he’d come to rely on the Sentinel senses. They helped him do his job more efficiently, helped him save more lives.

“This isn’t permanent, Jim. You know that, right?”

Jim tossed the magazine aside. “No, I don’t know that. I don’t know anything right now, because the ghost of my dead friend likes to be enigmatic.”

Again, Blair tried to use his Guide gift before remembering it wasn’t there. And then he realized.

“It’s you. You’re the reason I haven’t zoned! Of course! You must be subconsciously using the Guide mojo to keep me from spiraling out.” He abandoned the window, where he’d been testing out the limits of sight, and joined Jim on the couch. “You need to get into the Sandburg Zone, big guy.”

Jim rolled his eyes. “There’s nothing mystical about that, Chief. It’s just you doing your thing.”

“Well, sure. I mean, some of it is that. I’m naturally empathetic and emotional, and maybe that’s a Guide requirement. We may be making up things up as we go most of the time, but I know there’s something else there.”

Damn Burton and his incomplete research! The Sentinel got all the focus because they were the ones doing all flashy stuff, they were the ones with the heightened senses and drive to protect their tribe. But Blair was certain there was more to being a Guide than just offering support and understanding.

“I can feel it sometimes,” he tried to explain. “Like a pool of calm I can draw from. You said my voice changes sometimes, right? When I’m trying to pull you out of a zone, or help you focus? I call it my Guide gift.”

“Catchy.”

“I’m being serious! Come on. Close your eyes.”

“Aren’t you tired of experiments yet?” Jim complained, but he closed his eyes.

Blair took Jim’s hands in his, holding them loosely together palm to palm. “Take a deep breath and hold it for a count of three. Two. One. Exhale through your mouth. Relax all your muscles. Breathe in again. Three. Two. One. Exhale.”

Jim followed along obediently, and Blair was able to use the Sentinel senses to monitor his physiology at the same time. He could hear the nice, steady beat of Jim’s heart, see the change in Jim’s body as he released the tension he was holding.

“You’re doing great, Jim. Now clear your mind, as much as you can. Let all your thoughts and worries fade away.”

“I can feel it,” Jim murmured. “Not a pool. A well. A deep well.”

Blair could feel it too, as if that well of calm was flowing out of Jim’s fingers. It washed over Blair like a warm summer breeze and wrapped around him like a soft blanket.

“Wow,” he breathed.

Jim blinked open his eyes. “No kidding, wow. You have this inside you all the time?”

“Yeah. I’ve just never felt it from the other side.”

Jim closed his hands around Blair’s and pulled him in for a kiss. Blair sank into it, his touch dial spinning up just a little so all his nerve endings were tingling at every point of contact.

“Come to think of it,” Blair said, lips still moving against Jim’s. “Seems a shame to waste all these super senses on household experiments.”

“You had something else in mind?”

Blair extricated himself, with some effort and more kissing, and pulled Jim up off the couch. 

“I do, but it involves a bed and you being naked.”

Jim grinned. “You know, if you’d led with that kind of experiment in the beginning, I’d have been a more willing participant.”

“Let’s see how willing you are now,” Blair challenged, and let Jim chase him all the way to the bedroom.

*o*o*o*

After a successful experiment in naked intimacy, during which hitherto unrealized heights of orgasmic bliss had been reached, Blair talked Jim into going out for lunch instead of just eating what they already had on hand.

“I want to mingle with the people,” he said enthusiastically. “See if I get any of the tribe vibes, you know?”

“A hippie Sentinel. Just what the world needed,” Jim teased.

They stayed in the neighborhood, and Jim was on the lookout for danger the entire walk down to Cecily’s. Just as it was Blair’s nature to be open with his feelings, it was Jim’s to be protective. Was that because they were destined to be Guide and Sentinel, or did their inherent natures make it a better fit?

Which came first? The Sentinel or the man?

The restaurant was only two blocks down, but for Blair it was a sensory smorgasbord. Things he never would’ve noticed before – differing degrees of rotting garbage in an alleyway dumpster, the sounds different types of shoes made on the sidewalk, a taste of car exhaust and smog in the back of his throat – threatened to overwhelm him now. It was only Jim’s light touch on the small of his back that kept Blair’s senses from spiraling out.

“How do you do this every day?” Blair asked. “It’s all I can do to focus on the dials.”

“You get used to it, I guess,” Jim replied. “Know when to dial up and dial down. It becomes automatic, like breathing or walking.”

As if Blair needed another reason to find Jim utterly amazing. That the man could manage his dials in the middle of a polluted city while also chasing down criminals was a testament to his strength of will and mental aptitude. Anyone who thought cops were lunkheads had no idea what they were talking about.

Cecily’s was full with the lunch rush, so they decided to get their order to go. While Jim ordered, Blair let himself enjoy the smells coming from the kitchen. He swore he could smell each individual spice and piece of meat. But he could smell something else, too, something that didn’t belong.

Blair frowned, and looked around the dining room. Everyone seemed pretty normal, eating their lunches and chatting with their tablemates or checking their phones. But there was a guy in line behind them, two people back, who didn’t look right. He looked...He looked like he was holding back a lot of rage. The smell came from him, and all of a sudden Blair knew what it was. He’d smelled it often enough.

“Jim,” he whispered. “That guy behind us in the blue coat. He’s got a gun.”

Jim nodded, leaned across the counter for one of the toothpicks in the dispenser, and stole a quick glance. It was a stealthy move.

“I don’t like the look on his face,” Jim whispered back. “What’s his heart rate?”

Blair fumbled with the hearing dial until he could make out the beat of the guy’s heart. “Racing. What’s the play here, Jim?”

It was their day off, and Blair knew Jim didn’t have his weapon on him. Why would he? More importantly, why was someone with a gun at Cecily’s? A robbery wouldn’t net much cash, and all the customers would be witnesses. The guy wasn’t trying to hide his face at all, not with a hat or a hoodie or a mask. Even Blair knew that was a bad sign.

“We need to diffuse whatever situation this is about to turn into,” Jim said, still keeping his voice down. “A lot of people could get hurt. Can you tell where he has the gun?”

Blair tried to focus in on the smell of gun oil, but he wasn’t as adept at using the senses as Jim was. “No. I can just tell it’s on him.”

“Okay. Keep your head down. Let me see if I can’t dip into that well of mojo.”

Before Blair could protest, Jim was walking toward the guy. He bumped into him, like it was an accident.

“Oh, sorry.” 

“Watch it, asshole!” the gunman snapped. 

Jim held both his hands up. “Hey, calm down. It was an accident.”

“You don’t want to fuckin’ mess with me today, pal. Keep walkin’.”

They were drawing attention from the other patrons, and Blair could tell people were starting to get nervous.

“Sir,” Jim said. “You’re going to want to _calm down_.”

Blair felt it, the Guide gift spilling out of Jim. Most of it was aimed at the gunman, but some of it hit the nearest tables and those people immediately relaxed and went back to eating like nothing was going on.

The gunman’s eyes rolled up in his head and he slumped to the floor, Jim catching him before he could hit his head. In another stealthy cop move, he patted the guy down, found the gun, and deftly slipped it into his own pocket without anyone seeing.

“What’s going on?” Myra, who ran the front of the restaurant, came around the counter. “That’s Peter. Is he okay?”

“You know this guy?” Blair asked.

“He worked for us for a while, in the kitchen. Robbie had to let him go last week. He was stealing.”

“He’ll be fine,” Jim assured her. 

Peter was already coming around, and Jim helped him to his feet. Before the guy could offer up a protest, Jim had him outside. Blair could well imagine the talking-to Peter was getting and hoped the guy would take advantage of the fact he was getting a second chance to make better decisions.

“Here’s your order,” Myra said, handing Blair a bag with two to-go containers inside. 

“Have a good day,” Blair replied. By the time he got outside, Peter was gone. “How’d that go?”

“I told him the entirety of Cascade PD would be keeping an eye on him, and he might want to forgo any future plans of petty revenge.” Jim slung his arm around Blair’s shoulders as they headed back home. “You saved some lives today, Chief.”

“You really think he would’ve used the gun?”

“My gut tells me yes.”

“Well, never let it be said I disagree with your gut.”

Joking aside, Blair felt relieved. He’d hate to think of anyone being shot just because some jerk lost his job and wanted to blame everyone but himself for it. Especially Myra and Robbie, who were really nice people and did a lot for the community.

“This is heavy stuff, man. The Sentinel thing. It’s a lot of responsibility.”

“Yeah, it is.” Jim pressed a kiss to the side of Blair’s head. “I know more about people than I ever wanted to.”

Blair could better understand Jim’s struggles with his abilities now.

“Don’t bury the lead here, Chief,” Jim said. “Your Guide mojo knocked that guy out cold. Did you know you could do that?”

“No. Honestly. I’ve never really given it much attention.”

Jim grinned. “When we do a switch back, you can do more self-experimenting.”

“Jeez, man, you make me sound like Dr. Jekyll here.”

“Maybe after lunch Mr. Hyde can come out and play.”

Blair laughed. “You’re a weird guy, you know that?”

“All part of the Ellison charm,” Jim assured him.

*o*o*o*

Blair didn’t know what woke him. A noise, maybe. A random creak in the loft, or a car honking somewhere outside. The bedroom was bathed in moonlight, the colors of the bedsheets and furniture desaturated, robbed of their vibrancy.

Jim slept on beside him, sprawled on his back with the sheet low enough to show the cut of one hip, pale as porcelain. In sleep he looked peaceful. At ease. Nothing like the man he was awake, a coiled spring always ready for action. A sharpened blade ready to cut through the bullshit and get to the truth.

It took Blair a long moment to realize he was seeing Jim with regular Sandburg vision. The heightened senses had departed while he slept. He reached for his Guide gift and this time it was there waiting for him. A deep well, Jim had said. Something that needed further exploration.

_I get it now_ , he thought. _I understand the journey._

Blair and Jim had spent a day walking in each other’s shoes, so to speak, to learn about the gifts they both had in different ways. Blair had learned Jim was more prepared to shoulder the responsibility of looking after the whole tribe, while he himself had untapped depths that would enable him to fulfill his responsibility for looking after the Sentinel.

Alone, they were strong. Together, they were formidable.

Jim snuffled in his sleep and turned, the sheet slipping further to show the curve of his ass as he reached out for Blair.

“Sleep,” he mumbled into his pillow.

Blair tucked himself against Jim and closed his eyes, smiling. He was right where he needed to be. A Guide for his Sentinel. A place for Jim to lay his weary head after a long day. Just as Jim was the home Blair had been searching for his whole life.

One journey completed, and another ready to begin.

**Author's Note:**

>  **AN:** This month’s AU challenge was a tough one for me (ironic, since I chose it). I’m not great at genderswaps or bodyswaps. But then I thought of other reversals and this fandom popped into my head. Voila! Sentinel mysticism makes anything possible! :;grins::


End file.
